Scottish independence. Discuss.

[lewd lude lover]

@merc: Hate to say it but i am glad all the shale is up in the north east far as i know you cant get bugger all out of limestone. frakkkkking is bad imho.

[bennyboy]

@benny: but did they go to the moon???? The jubilee is a perfect case in point.... would the deposed Scottish royal family regain a throne? Is there a deposed Scottish royal family? You see the jubilee was an english affair due to our german Queen

Don't worry, they did
Oh and yes I hear ya, but it depends how far you want to take it/look back doesn't it. All I mean is that at face value, the country was in something 'together' and better for it IMO. Not to mention the feel good factor having a positive effect on business too.

[Space1999]

If I was Scottish (I'm not, I'm English), I'd probably vote to leave. But only if Scotland didn't go scuttling off to Europe to be oppressed by them instead!

Sadly I fear Salmond and Co. want precisely this; they want to be in a superstate where they will be forgotten (as they will soon find out) and patronised, rather than regarded as a significant part of a smaller – but still very important – entity.

As many here in England know, an awful lot of the UK is run to benefit Scotland (look at the spending per head, for example, and the fact that Scotland can afford to have 4 year degrees, etc., etc.). I think England would benefit if Scotland left. But I think there is a real 'feeling' of being British - whereas there certainly isn't one of being 'European' - so even though it's against my own personal interest as an English person, I hope Scotland stays in the Union but with a beefed up parliament and more autonomy.

[lewd lude lover]

good points space1999. i cant disagree with you there. It does nark me that I have to pay £7.20 for meds and any chance of a successful career after uni quashed by crippling debt. Why does Scotland get these dispensations? What happens to scottish universities when everyone there has to pay '000 a year to be there? what about all the overseas students that will do one soon as the well is dry? thats a lot of overseas money coming that will dry up. money that supports pubs and entertainment in towns and cities. Jobs.

Hmmm.

[BMCC]

Well this had to come up sooner or later. I agree lets keep it civilised. I have no axe to grind with any nation in the UK.

That being said, I'm all for independence. Let us make the decisions that affect us (Scots) here in Scotland. Maybe we will be better off, maybe we will be worse off in a financial sense but whatever way it goes it will be transient. Sometimes better off, sometimes worse off over the span of hundreds of years. Finance is a short term measure used by both sides as their measure of benefit and both will twist and manipulate the figures to their advantage.

Let us be free from the UK and the EU. I wouldn't mind a Nowegian type model of government.

Scotland gets a block grant from Westminster and we cut that up and spend it as we see fit. Hence we have a free uny education etc. The UK government does the same thing (but with leeway as they can borrow), they just choose to spend the money differently.

[Donald]

I will post in this mutha later.

[lewd lude lover]

good points.

The thought of being free from the UK and Europe is not on the agenda though is it? Do you think there is the resource available to go it fully alone? Norway is a very focused nation and they pay like 67% in tax to have their nation all clean and tidy. Is Scotland willing to go without bread for a few decades so you can have cake later on when the infrastructure is built?

What happens when that block grant stops coming from westminster is a big question for me? I mean we get more money back in the coffers obviously. less old people die of the cold in wolverhampton etc but who pays that money into the scottish economy? Are there enough scot's to make the short fall in taxes? And who will foot that tax bill?

I totally appreciate the sentiment of ' why not give it a try for better or worse' but will Scotland stand on its own even if it falls into chaos and economic armageddon? will England get a knock on the door in a decade and open it to a cold and hungry scotland? or would it just become a ghost town as everyone moves south over a generation to find work and stability?

This is what I dont understand as the media is not sharing these points of, what i would call, importance. This is why I ask the questions I have to the only Scottish people I know that live in Scotland


good man donald

[Donald]

Alright I'm on my phone so this won't be a huge post.

I'll start by saying that contrary to popular belief I am not a anti-Scot. also note that the points I'm making are relevant to my being British, not English.

Now that that's out of the way, the points I may or may have not made last time this was mentioned (I can't remember!) Are mainly unchanged.

I think, in short:

Good luck to Scotland if it wants independence. I think every country or nation should have the opportunity to go it alone.

However, in my opinion:

Scotland needs to start from scratch and take its share of the economic problems the UK has. By that I mean take a portion of UK debt calculated by population.

Scotland needs it's own currency.

It needs to apply to the EU independently, just like every other country has. It shouldn't automatically gain membership.

Any deviation from that is, again in my opinion, piggybacking on the success or non-success of the UK. Scotland can't have cake and eat it and go back for seconds.

I don't think any of hide points are particularly unreasonable.

As said though I do think a lot of this is people in Scotgov with a chip on their shoulder. Last time I looked at the public opinion polls, the majority of Scots didn't want independence.

I o have more to say on the points mentioned by others in here but my lunch break is only so long

[lewd lude lover]

fair point there. What currency would Scotland want? euro?

[Donald]

The euro is probably the only viable option.

EDIT: I did hear talk of a currency that essentially was the pound sterling but rebranded. This IMO is not acceptable.